Billions needed to upgrade Melbourne roads

The RACV is calling for a major revamp of road and public transport funding after what it says is 10 years of neglect in outer Melbourne.

In a study released today, the motoring lobby says it has identified a backlog of 159 projects.

Almost 40 of them have been delayed by 10 or more years.

The plan says $7.4 billion is needed to pay for the works across 16 municipalities.

Thanuja Gunatillake from the RACV says the Government needs to rethink the way transport projects are funded

"There's a whole range of ways that the State Government could work with the private sector, including developer contributions where the land owners who benefit from a certain project pay a levy to support a certain project, and possibly tolls," she said.

Ms Gunatillake says proposals for a railway station at Chadstone Shopping Centre and the connection of the Dandenong and Glen Waverley lines prove its possible to fund the work with public-private partnerships.

"A $2 billion project would only require a Government contribution of $500 or $600 million," she said.

"In terms of bang for buck I think there's a whole range of options out there that we need to be looking at."

Ms Gunatillake the lack of work is is crippling the flow of traffic.

"Trouble simply accessing the freeway network with arterial roads that haven't kept up pace, disconnected bus services, often people are having to catch more than one bus just to access a train station, if there is a train station nearby," she said.

More infrastructure

Victorian Premier Ted Baillieu says the report highlights the need for improved infrastructure in the city.

"We would certainly agree that we need to put additional infrastructure in place," he said.

"I think this report acknowledges that the previous government left a significant infrastructure deficit behind.

"When they had the money they didn't do what they could have done.

"Times are more challenging now and we have to find ways to prioritise these projects and fund them."

Mr Baillieu says the Commonwealth also has a role to play, both by minimising construction costs through a federal construction cost inquiry, and through funding for projects.

"We've made significant proposals to Infrastructure Australia and to the Commonwealth - they haven't yet been met with any funding," he said.

"But I think the RACV have acknowledged that the Commonwealth have to make a greater contribution."

The Premier has shied away from attaching a price tag to the projects.

"I'm not going to put figures on it. I think one of the mistakes we make is we put figures on things too easily," he said.

"We want to do the work first. We want to put together the priorities of projects and establish the funding for them."